Zarah
Zarah was given to 151 girls in 2025, #1,435 among girls’ names; 2,957 Americans have been recorded with it since 1968 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,930 Americans named Zarah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 10 years old and half are between 5 and 18.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Zarah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Zarah mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Zarah is “a female given name from Latin [in turn from Ancient Greek, in turn from Hebrew], variant of Sarah.”
Also “a female given name from Arabic, variant of Zara.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Zarah?
#1,435 among girls’ names, 2025
Zarah rose from #1,730 in 2015 to #1,435 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 68.3 to 93.9 per million.
199 babies in 2022, the peak
Zarah peaked in 2022, when 199 girls were given it, #1,219 among girls’ names. The 151 births of 2025 are 76% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 151 | #1,435 | 0.09 |
| 2024 | 163 | #1,389 | 0.10 |
| 2023 | 157 | #1,429 | 0.10 |
| 2022 | 199 | #1,219 | 0.12 |
| 2021 | 168 | #1,333 | 0.10 |
| 2020 | 141 | #1,517 | 0.09 |
| 2019 | 141 | #1,539 | 0.08 |
| 2018 | 116 | #1,773 | 0.07 |
| 2017 | 147 | #1,513 | 0.09 |
| 2016 | 119 | #1,756 | 0.07 |
Every recorded year (52)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 122 | #1,730 | 0.07 |
| 2014 | 92 | #2,113 | 0.05 |
| 2013 | 81 | #2,304 | 0.05 |
| 2012 | 99 | #1,982 | 0.06 |
| 2011 | 96 | #2,042 | 0.05 |
| 2010 | 94 | #2,117 | 0.05 |
| 2009 | 80 | #2,423 | 0.04 |
| 2008 | 73 | #2,583 | 0.04 |
| 2007 | 60 | #2,991 | 0.03 |
| 2006 | 69 | #2,630 | 0.04 |
| 2005 | 40 | #3,722 | 0.02 |
| 2004 | 31 | #4,487 | 0.02 |
| 2003 | 44 | #3,342 | 0.02 |
| 2002 | 34 | #3,883 | 0.02 |
| 2001 | 39 | #3,481 | 0.02 |
| 2000 | 35 | #3,732 | 0.02 |
| 1999 | 36 | #3,503 | 0.02 |
| 1998 | 19 | #5,577 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 19 | #5,409 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 21 | #4,876 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 18 | #5,433 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 21 | #4,838 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 23 | #4,516 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 16 | #6,001 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 14 | #6,578 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 17 | #5,543 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 14 | #6,152 | 0.01 |
| 1988 | 16 | #5,315 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 10 | #7,346 | 0.01 |
| 1986 | 14 | #5,455 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 14 | #5,344 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 8 | #8,147 | under 0.01 |
| 1983 | 6 | #10,270 | under 0.01 |
| 1982 | 12 | #5,905 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 12 | #5,883 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 11 | #6,317 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 11 | #6,187 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 8 | #7,643 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 11 | #5,884 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 5 | #9,639 | under 0.01 |
| 1969 | 5 | #8,698 | under 0.01 |
| 1968 | 5 | #8,193 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Zarah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Zarah has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 52 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Zarah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Zarah, and how old are they?
2,930 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 2,957 Americans ever recorded as Zarah. The median Zarah alive today is 10 years old; half are between 5 and 18.
The 2020 Census counted 2,032 people named Zarah (2,013 women and girls, 19 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,995 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 53 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 230 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 860 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,790 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Zarah born?
The states with the most babies named Zarah are Texas, Florida and California, with 35% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 16 | #1,530 | 0.8× |
| Florida | 14 | #1,110 | 1.3× |
| California | 8 | #2,483 | 0.7× |
| Pennsylvania | 8 | #1,105 | 0.7× |
| Massachusetts | 8 | #681 | 0.3× |
| New York | 7 | #1,828 | 1.3× |
| Georgia | 7 | #1,353 | 0.8× |
| Maryland | 7 | #728 | 0.6× |
| Michigan | 7 | #1,057 | 0.3× |
| North Carolina | 6 | #1,432 | 0.3× |
Where Zarah is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Zarah is most over-represented in New York: since 1968 it was given 1.3 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Zarah with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 73,110 babies since 1880, Zarah is the seventh most given (4.0% of them). In 2025 it was given to 151 of their 3,831 babies (3.9%), again the seventh most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Zarah
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Zarah and names like it
- Compare Zarah and ZaraBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sZarah peaked in 2022.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Zarah since 1910.
- Ancient Greek namesWiktionary’s origin for Zarah: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2022The year the most babies were named Zarah.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Zarah alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with ZMost given first.